Salt(ier) Life

Climate change is real, sea-level rise is happening and if South Florida wants to survive, we’re going to have to adapt. One research project is at the forefront of figuring out how.

The waters are changing in South Florida — and we’re seeing it firsthand nearly every day: in fall, when the king tides skyrocket and push into the streets. When the barrier island and Las Olas Isles roadways are inundated by seawater from the very infrastructure created to drain those areas. Or when trees die off in areas where the flooding occurred, indicating intensifying saltwater intrusion.

The naysayers will shrug it off. Say that flooding has always happened. But Jeffrey Huber says that sort of attitude could spell our doom. “The coastal zone is home to some of our country’s most valuable ecological and socioeconomic assets,” says Huber, an architect, Florida Atlantic University associate professor, and principal and director of planning and urban design at architecture and design collective Brooks + Scarpa, where he runs the South Florida office. Through his work he directs of the research platform Salty Urbanism, a collaborative effort focusing on sea-level rise adaptation strategies. “Many of these locations are being demonstrably transformed due to … accelerating sea-level-rise. The result is a potential loss of myriad ecosystem services such as storm protection, wildlife habitat, recreation and aesthetics, among others.”

And Huber says with a rising population and already growing flood risk that’s linked to sea-level rise, residents will have to confront new challenges over the years. “South Floridians will be faced with increased vulnerability due to permanent inundation, heat waves, hurricanes and die-offs,” Huber says. “These challenges will transform regional tourism, housing, waste management, energy and food production.”

It’s not something a reusable straw will fix, either.

“We seem to think that by diminishing our carbon footprint and reducing greenhouse emissions that this is going to protect us — this thinking is wrong,” Huber says. “We also seem to think that shoreline hardening solutions like sea walls will protect us — they will not.”

Salty Urbanism says that instead of turning to a different page, adapting to sea-level rise in South Florida will require a whole new playbook.

“A new framework for urban design and architecture that embeds ecosystem services and adjusts to increasingly salty landscapes will emerge as the only viable adaptation solution in South Florida,” the plan notes.

The initiative, founded in 2017, says Floridians living in vulnerable areas will need to take a “fight or flight” approach. To proponents of Salty Urbanism, fighting looks like more saltwater-tolerant plants and home adaptations like stilts, mounds, floating structures and platforms on higher ground.

“We will need to begin looking at decentralized utilities and areas to store more water. Our wastewater treatment plants are in high risk areas as is many of the power generation infrastructure,” Huber says. “Our water supply is already experiencing saltwater intrusion, and the western well fields will need to be protected if we are to continue to have a viable drinking water source. I think it must be clearly stated that at some point though these systems will all fail, and a need to think about district and neighborhood-based utilities will be the only viable option.”

The City of Fort Lauderdale’s Sustainability Division suggests that everyone in Fort Lauderdale can do their part to adapt to sea-level rise by focusing on water conservation, sustainable construction, emergency preparedness and lowering your overall carbon footprint. Sounds pretty straightforward. But figuring out how to do it in the real world isn’t always easy.

Straw Poll

In January, Fort Lauderdale joined other jurisdictions around the US and the world in banning the use of plastic straws. The issue became even more fraught in Florida this spring when the Legislature banned cities from banning straws – only to have Gov. Ron DeSantis veto that legislation.

Straws have become just one flashpoint as people grapple with plastics and other products that create waste and environmental degradation. In May, 4ocean – a Boca Raton-based organization that hosts regular ocean cleanups and manufactures bracelets out of the recycled material salvaged – partnered with food-delivery service Delivery Dudes to reduce the amount of plasticware included with to-go food. The partnership gave customers placing Delivery Dudes orders the option to opt out of receiving plasticware.

“Quantitatively, [the partnership] will help to reduce the amount of single-use plastic Delivery Dudes will be an accomplice to, while giving customers expanded options on their delivery,” Delivery Dudes Palm Beach County regional manager Christopher Leary says. “Qualitatively, it will help to inform the public, bring awareness to the cause, and further the collaboration between different parties in search of a common goal.”

Some in the private sector are also figuring out how to work sustainably and adjust to South Florida’s new reality. Fort Lauderdale-based Alternative Constructors focuses on sustainable construction and design.

“Throughout our workday, every decision is based upon a series of priorities, first being the environmental impact. We urge our team and customers to protect the environment and our future in all of our choices. The future of our planet and all living things depend on it,” co-owner Dana Shambora says.

“In our projects, we use a lot of reclaimed woods, non-toxic sealers and concrete made from recycled materials. We use only water-based sealers, non-solvent based. Solvent based are cheaper, but not good for us or the environment.”

“I do not think habit changes like reusable straws, energy-use reduction, or more sustainable building products will address sea-level rise,” he says. “Sea rise will force us to live differently — where we will need to rethink our relationship with water.”

But activists like Debbi Hixon, Marine Science and Technology Magnet Program coordinator for South Broward High School, says those individual choices also matter. “I get what [Huber] is saying, but I don’t think we should give up on trying to change our habits that are negatively impacting our oceans,” she says. “It can’t hurt to try to be better consumers and think about how we are impacting the oceans. It may not make a significant impact right this minute, but it will help people make better choices so we don’t make things worse.”

Hixon often leads ocean cleanup initiatives with her students and encourages people who want to help to volunteer for the monthly beach sweeps that occur throughout the county.

“Not doing anything is not the answer either,” Hixon says. “We have become such a selfish and throwaway society. That mindset needs to change for a variety of reasons, the ocean being just one. Our single use plastics are also taking up so much room on the Earth, if we don’t do something now to change that, we will run out of room to put it. It is so important to not only recycle, but to learn how to repurpose and simply-use less to begin with.”

Huber does say there’s a small-scale fix all South Floridians can consider.

“Plant trees,” he says. “But think about the type and longevity of these. There is an old adage that states, ‘the right tree in the right place.’ The conditions are changing and trees have the capacity to transpire large amounts of water if properly planted; they essentially become bio-pumps for us.”

These fixes in South Florida don’t just impact the local climate, either. Lisa Rinaman is a riverkeeper in Jacksonville, where she maintains and serves as an advocate for the St. Johns River. She says the state of water in Miami and South Florida directly impacts the Jacksonville river.

“If we don’t get this right now, when will we get it right?” she asked during a public lecture about sea-level rise.

In addition to planting native plants, Rinaman advises using fewer fertilizers, not pouring anything polluting down the drain and taking sea-level rise issues to public officials.

Bailing Water vs. Bailing Out

As sea levels continue to rise, considering where to live comes down to more than just good school zones. Now, flood-zones must also be high on the list.

“Ultimately, sea-level rise is not as scary as climate change,” Huber says. “We can simply move away from the coast… The likelihood of eight feet of sea rise by the turn of the century means we should plan the next phase of development and infrastructure for that, since the lifespan of infrastructure is generally assumed to be 50 years although in reality it is 100 years.”

It’s a subject the City of Fort Lauderdale has had to grapple with over the last few years, even including an explainer on sea-level rise on its website.

“Gradual change at our shoreline is news. An acceleration of the rate of rise in sea level is the concern,” the website notes. “Whether you agree that it is a permanent shift in the pattern, or whether you think it is all part of a natural cycle that will eventually shift back, the situation is still the same. For the foreseeable future, at least for this century and into the next, Fort Lauderdale and our neighbors will need to adapt to a rising sea and to a rate of rise that will require significant public and private action.”

But getting residents to care is a big part of the battle.

“No matter how many data points or models you show, no one likes being told not to build somewhere,” Otis Rolley, a director at 100 Resilient Cities — an initiative that helps cities vulnerable to climate change around the world — said in an interview with Metropolis. “It can be difficult and emotional to think about building differently — it is not based on politics or inequity, but about their well-being and the overall wellbeing of the city.”

But city leaders know the issue has to be taken seriously, or else the economy will pay.

South Florida leaders have expressed concerns that once federal maps start factoring sea-level rise — which could happen as soon as next year — insurance prices will increase and scare away investors. However, the agencies that guide investors, insurers and banks reportedly take into account efforts made to reduce the risk sea-level rise poses.

Those efforts come with a cost, though, a monetary one that is currently underfunded. There’s a lack of state and federal dollars for adaptation efforts. A proposed penny sales tax that was on 2016 ballots would have helped — 9 percent of the tax proceeds were reserved for water, sewer and stormwater projects. But the plan was rejected by voters.

Things will get more difficult by 2060, when potentially a foot of sea-level rise will loom over the region.

Action initiatives like the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact join Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties together to take on the impending effects of climate change and sea-level rise. Its goals are to develop annual legislative programs that advocate for policies and funding on both state and federal levels, create a Regional Climate Action Plan and meet annually at the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit.

Within the next 50 years, South Florida residents will ask themselves a set of The Clash lyrics: should I stay or should I go? Huber says neither answer is wrong. It just takes consideration.

“To stay requires conventional practices of land ownership and management that promote separation from ecological networks to be questioned, discarded, or translated into new development choices,” he says. “Development of amphibious strategies through new languages of wetness, buoyancy, tethering, anchorage, hosting or scaffolding, hovering, raising and suspension must be considered.

“Those that stay will be tested and must be willing to pay to live here.”

Soft Defense (The Green Jacket)

The most conservative of all three scenarios where a fortified “green jacket” of living shoreline and breakwaters with green streets botanize North Bay Village – parks, not pipes! Major infrastructural investments require development to simply pull back from the edge.

Enhanced Beach Dunes

Thickened “Living Shoreline”

Oyster Reefs

Energy Farms

Green Streets

Buildings with Green Roofs/Walls

Living Breakwaters

Hydric Park (horizontal levee)

Preservation of Historic Buildings

Wave Streetcar and Water Taxi Stops

Strategic Retreat

Retreating back from the lowest elevations and rewilding intercoastal shorelines ensures productive ecological services. The rewilding gives back critical biodiversity and refuge to the shoreline, essentially giving land back to nature.

Enhanced Dunes and Sand Engine

Thickened “Living Shoreline”

Oyster Reefs

Energy Farms

Amphibious/Stiltsville Neighborhood

Buildings with Green Roofs/Walls

Living Breakwaters

Enhanced Mangrove Forest

Stormwater Hydric Park

Wave Streetcar and Water Taxi Stops

Land Adjust (Islands and Atolls)

The most radical scenario requires land assembly and adjustments. New development provides amphibious and submerged building typologies that create new lifestyle possibilities celebrating the water.

RETREAT Buildings are relocated to higher elevations where flooding is less likely to occur. This could be a few hundred feet or miles.

RAISED MOUND Building is raised above BFE on earthen mound. Keep in mind that NFIP criteria do not account for future land development, coastal erosion and subsidence, or sea-level rise. These would have to be factored in to ensure lifespan considerations.

RAISED STILTS Building is raised above BFE on stilts. Keep in mind that NFIP criteria do not account for future land development, coastal erosion and subsidence, or sea level rise. These would have to be factored in to ensure lifespan considerations. Considerations of what happens under the building should be addressed.

AMPHIBIOUS STRUCTURE Structure is built to float on elevated flood waters. The piles anchor the structure in place while the buoyant base floats up and down. The building rests atop the ground during non-flood events.

FLOATING STRUCTURE Structure is built to float on water and tethered to a mooring or anchoring device while allowing the building to move freely in multiple directions.

Five Forms of Flooding

Due to South Florida’s unique geomorphology it floods five different ways and each poses considerable challenges.